Speed's map shows Herefordshire as a county with a rolling landscape rising gently into the foothills of the Welsh Mountains.
The land is chris-crossed with many brooks, streams and rivers flowing into the river Wye.
Herefordshire had been victim to many Welsh incursions and, as a result, a network of defended castles had been established. By 1610, twenty-eight of these fortresses still remained and by then were occupied by local landowners.